Fears grow that breast cancer awareness event run by Komen group could be a casualty of Planned Parenthood criticism

Every month, somewhere in America, people swath themselves in pink, lace up their running shoes and take part in the Race for the Cure, the world’s largest and most successful breast cancer awareness and fundraising event. Since the first race in Dallas in 1983, 1.6 million participants have pounded round the 5km courses in a series which now spans four continents.

But now there are growing fears that the race series, and the millions of dollars it raises, may be one of the most visible casualties of the backlash that has engulfed the organisation that runs it, the Susan G Komen for the Cure Foundation, since it decided to stop funding Planned Parenthood, the country’s leading reproductive healthcare provider – a decision, critics say, that was made under pressure from anti-abortion activists. Planned Parenthood is a target of pro-life lobbies because some of its clinics offer abortions.

A week has passed since Komen was forced to reverse that decision and issue a public apology. But that failed to silence the critics, so on Tuesday, Karen Handel, Komen’s senior vice-president and the apparent architect of the defunding decision, resigned. Yet that, too, has done little to restore public confidence in the organisation.

The brand that Komen’s founder Nancy Brinker has spent 30 years building, promoting and aggressively protecting lies in tatters, tainted by a decision widely perceived as political and which, had it been carried through, would have halted breast cancer screening programmes for uninsured women who would otherwise not have access to such care.

How Komen will ever recover is a question many are asking. There are those who feel it won’t be fixed until Brinker and her entire board resigns.